Drama opening, bypassing a southern city (8)
I believe the answer is:
plymouth
'a southern city' is the definition.
(city in the southwest of England)
'drama opening bypassing' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'opening' could be 'mouth' (mouth is a kind of opening) and 'mouth' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'ply' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plymouth that I've seen before include "Conservative Evangelical Christian movement" , "Devon port city" , "Laughter my ploy (anag)" , "that the Pilgrims left" , "Port of which Sir Francis Drake was once mayor" .)